Disclaimer: This is not a manifesto
against a blogging site that allows people to catalog images, thoughts, and
various other gems that they find inspiring, beautiful and self
expressive. This is also most definitely
not a manifesto against art via various physical mediums. This is a call to creativity beyond a canvas,
beyond a camera, and beyond instruments.
This is a call to live life as a catalog of inspiring moments. This is a call to choices that we feel
express us well- especially as children of the living God, redeemed and new
people.

In recent months, I have discovered
tumblr, a blogging engine that provides its users the ability to quickly
assemble defining collages. Sometimes
these blogs are about something specific- an actress idolized, a certain PBU professor
quoted, a specific flower even. More
often though, I find that these blogs are used to create a picture of an ideal
life. Greater than the sum of their parts, these tumblrs describe with the
click of their “curator’s” mouse the life their users wish they had. Glamorous, preppy, rebellious and free, there
is a tumblr for all kinds of aspiration.

While I’m positive that not all
tumblr users find themselves immersed in the cyber-sea of floating images and
ideas 24/7, it is remarkably addictive.
I don’t have one, and while some sites abuse their free reign of
internet space, there are some very beautiful blogs that are hard to stop
scrolling through. I’ve been thinking
though, about how tumblr users (and other bloggers) choose the images and
selections to define them. It’s
expressive of who they are. It’s immediately visible and constantly changing,
fast paced and quickly visually gratifying.
For many people it’s piecing together, picture by picture, song by song,
quote by quote, who they want to be.

On a related note, (and it is
related, bear with me) I’ve been thinking about something Mako Fujimura said on
his most recent visit to PBU about finding one’s medium as an artist. Can people without typical artistic abilities
like drawing, writing poetry, and beautiful voices create art? Can scientists
and history teachers and people who think math is riveting create pieces which
inspire and reveal the depth of the human experience to others in new ways?

I think tumblr is a good metaphor
with which to answer these questions. If
we collect images and quotes and inspiration to place on an online bulletin
board, can’t we collect choices and experiences and value and place them on the
canvas of our lives? And any cyber-inspiration board should pale in comparison
to the lives we choose to live. As
people with an eternal and ultimate purpose, the ever mutating picture our
lives cast should point to a living God.

We all have the ability to create
pieces of art which inspire, which call others to big and deep questions, which
shed light on truth and life. The
choices that we make and the experiences that we have can layer on the canvases
of our lives to create a complex, multidimensional masterpiece that points to
the glory of Christ, much like Fujimura’s work.
We must seek to enjoy scripture, intellectual pursuit, creative outlets,
and relationships in a very intentional way.
We must be present in our lives.

Brothers and sisters, we must
curate the galleries, paint the canvases, and choose for the tumblrs of our
lives in a way that glorifies God and enjoys the abundant life he gives.